Dance Creation by Ruth St Denis - Essay Example

__________ ID: ______ ID: ______ Introduction "I see dance being used as communication between body and soul, to expresswhat is too deep to find for words." (Ruth St. Denis, Dance, 2006) The early pioneers of modern dance whether Ruth St Denis, Martha Graham or Doris Humphrey, each possessed a unique choreographic dance style and developed his/her own personal movement vocabulary. However Martha Graham was more independent in creating new modern dance moves than Doris Humphrey. This might be because of she was not affiliated nor concerned with St Denis "Deinshawn" company. While Humphrey spend an era in Deinshawn, learning and teaching dance and choreographic styles. There has never been a single specific style of modern dance in any era. Though it often uses the body alignment and movement of ballet, modern dance has developed beyond the vocabulary of ballet, and has reached the threshold of success due to these three modern choreographic creators. To what extent were Doris Humphrey and Martha graham influenced by the work of Ruth St Denis Ruth St Denis was one of the most prominent dance creators of the First generation; she was the pioneer of modern dance in the era in which there was no concept of turning dance into choreography. It is often said that Martha Graham and Doris Humphrey were influenced by St Denis, this is due to the fact they were classmates who studied dance together in 1920s, later they broke away and developed their own philosophies of modern dance which provided these women the opportunity to become directors and choreographers. "Particularly, in the ballet world, these roles had been and continue to be dominated by men". (Dance, 2006) St. Denis was the one who escorted traditional dance to the threshold of modern dance where she incorporated elements of Far Eastern dance into her choreography. Later St. Denis married her dance partner Ted Shawn who founded the "Denishawn" company and trained many great dancers who went on to form their own companies. Martha Graham akin to St Denis, has had an enormous impact on the field of modern dance. "Her notion of contraction and release (a torso based movement of a sharp intake of breath followed by a strong exhalation), her groundbreaking dances based on mythology, and her theatrical personality have made her the best known modern dancer of all time. Graham created a technique that emphasized "contraction and release". These words are now synonymous with modern dance. Graham was the first modern dance choreographer to reach out to other genres of modern art for collaboration. She is considered the most influential and famous modern choreographer of the 20th century. Humphrey developed a fundamental theory of movement based on "fall and recovery" that became the basis of her technique". (Dance, 2006) There is a difference between the influences of Martha Graham and Humphrey, Graham developed her own choreographical dances while Humphrey remained in contact with St Denis by joining her Deinshawn Company in 1917 and was teaching classes and performing with the company in featured roles. "Charles Weidman was Humphrey's choreographic and dance partner in the 1920s and 1930s, and was himself a key figure in the development of the American modern dance. Humphrey began her choreographic career while at Denishawn, where she created, with St. Denis, famous pieces like "Soaring," set to the Schumman score of the same title, and "Sonata Pathetique," to the Beethoven score". "In 1928, Humphrey and Charles Weidman left the Denishawn company to found their own school and company. Like Martha Graham, Humphrey was interested in moving away from the sentimentalism and romanticism of the Denishawn company toward a new dance vocabulary and style that was truly "modern"." (The Solo Dancers) Ruth St. Denis created an exotic movement vocabulary through dancing and choreography that balanced precariously between sensuality and religion. By the 1930s Martha Graham was developing a dance technique whose angularity and sharp impulses expressed the psychological landscape while Doris Humphrey's fall and recovery technique emphasized the drama of the body off center. Despite these new styles of movement, the premises underlying the construction of a dance still followed centuries-long standards. We see them spelled out in mid-century composition primers. Humphrey's 1959 The Art of Making Dances taught choreographic craft by mapping out the strong and weak parts of the stage and showing how to manipulate the elements of gesture, design, dynamics, and rhythm. Two other influential dance composition texts of the period were written by Graham's adviser and music director, Louis Horst, who believed that dance, like music, must adhere to given forms. Dancers may have been spiraling dramatically to the floor, but they were doing so in orderly formations and in time to music. (Morgenroth , 2004, p. 5) Morgenroth writes in "Speaking of dance", "When you train as a dancer, you're hearing the history of people's opinions on how you should look. But I thought modern dance was all about figuring out your way to move in the world with your own unique piece of equipment. That's what Martha Graham and Ruth St. Denis were all about. They all had peculiarities. All of this made interested the modern dance, but not necessarily in what had happened thus far in modern dance." (Morgenroth, 2004, p. 228) According to Anna Halprin, one of the fellows of Martha Graham "When I became disaffected from modern dance in my twenties it was because, despite modern dance's original urge to break away from ballet, I felt that there was essentially no difference between what modern dancers were doing and what ballet had always done. Some modern dances, like Doris Humphrey's Chacon, were purely abstract and followed the structure of music. Martha Graham made works that represented mythological stories. They were wonderful dances, fresh and with a spirit of America about them. But, like in ballet, everybody was trained to look alike, except it was based on an idiosyncratic approach to art, on somebody's personal style". (Morgenroth, 2004, p. 26) Conclusion No doubt St Denis is the choreographer who has combined modern technique with other dance forms. The folk dance, flamenco and ballet she studied throughout her life infused her work with a unique blend of style, which is followed today. Popular for its humor and choreography, her work became an influential symbol for Martha Graham and Doris Humphrey which could be seen from their continuity of work, Graham developed "Contraction and release" while Humphrey continued with new theory of movement "Fall and release", both learned and gained experience from St Denis's "Deinshawn". Works Cited Dance, 2006 Accessible from Morgenroth Joyce, 2004. "Speaking of Dance: Twelve Contemporary Choreographers on Their Craft": Routledge. Place of Publication: New York The Solo Dancers, Read More